| Narrative | The date of this massacre is unclear, but the perpetrator has been identified. Lewis (2021, np) provided these details:
"On the McArthur River some 60 km upstream from the McArthur River Mine is Dungginmini: a permanent waterhole which is a Gurdanji sacred place...John Avery recorded a narrative of a massacre at this place from a land claim informant during 1977:
"There was a mob of Aboriginals camping here in the old times, poor buggers, when Top Station was up. Frank Meagan came out with pack horses, plant, trailing horses and rifles. They been hunting around for people to shoot. They left their horses north of the spring and swung around the spring. They ran into them and shot them all. They shot the whole mob. Some fellas got out, some got up the steep cliffs. The waterhole was all blood—girls and boys, old women and men were shot. They did the same all around right down to Kilgour and Amelia Spring. Frank Meagan also poisoned people at Warunguri'."
Roberts (2005, p 184) clarified 'Meagan's' identity. He was most likely Reading Littler 'Frank' Meeking who worked on McArthur River and Elsey Stations.
In 1903 he was the sole applicant for 100 square miles of land under pastoral lease north-west of Borroloola (NTTG, 25 Dec 1903, p 4) and by 1914 was advertising as a saddler in Darwin (NTTG, 10 Sept 1914, p 16). |
